Samuel Johnson, educator and Anglican minister, is today remembered chiefly for his attempt to reconcile enlightenment philosophy and science with the basic teachings of reformed Christianity. He is also significant for having been (along with Jonathan Edwards) one of North America's first philosophical idealists.

Born in Guilford, Connecticut, the son of Samuel II and Mary Sage Johnson, Johnson attended the Collegiate School at Saybrook, Connecticut (soon to become Yale College after its removal to New Haven in 1716), and delivered the valedictory address for the class of 1714. Shortly after Johnson's graduation, the school received from an English benefactor, Jeremiah Dummer, a large collection of the newest works on Baconian science and empirical philosophy (now called the Dummer collection). Johnson was among the first to make use of it. He read in these books enthusiastically and began revising his theology in terms of the "new learning."

In 1716 Johnson accepted the...